Fossil Fuel Divestment

World Leaders Are Dragging Their Heels - But Here's How You Can Combat Climate Change Today

Sunday’s Climate Change March in New York City drew north of 300,000 protesters in anticipation of yesterday’s climate change meeting at the United Nations. Yes, that’s a march roughly the size of Pittsburgh. People are finally starting to agree with the existing scientific consensus — that unless world governments and multinational corporations start acting fast, it won’t be long before we’re all in hot water. If you will.

One of the stories to emerge from the protest was the Rockefeller Brothers Fund announcing they were divesting from fossil fuel investments. Yes, the descendants of John D. Rockefeller, who once became the richest man in America by riding on the back of the lucrative oil industry, are turning their backs on said oil. While irony therein makes for a good soundbyte, there’s more at play here.

The group Divest-Invest is one of the big names in the divestment game at the moment. Divest-Invest has been pushing for heads of endowments, fund managers and the like to help move investments in fossil fuel companies toward investments in clean energy and other more environmentally responsible stocks, and yesterday formally launched their Individual branch, which allows people to pledge to divest their own holdings from fossil fuels.

"You don’t have to be a Rockefeller to divest from fossil fuel," said Chuck Collins, cochair of Divest-Invest Individual of the stream of pledges that came pouring in after the launch. "They’re small investors, most of them, who want to align their money and their vision."

The importance of the divestment movement is clear to Collins. "Our world leaders […] have failed to address the urgency of the climate crisis. And one of the reasons for that is that the fossil fuel industry — big oil, big coal and big gas — are using their considerable political clout to block the changes we need."

For him, the logic behind divestment amounts to saying, "'Well, if my personal investments are in the fossil fuel sector, I’m sort of voting for them with my money.'

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"It’s time to shift our votes to the future, to the society we want," Collins says. "The United Nations' world leaders are all gathered around, wringing their hands about what they’re going to do and we hope that they get big and bold. But in the meantime, we need citizen movements from below to put pressure."

"Part of what is great is when people sign the pledge, they’re telling the marketplace they need to respond. We see this already — companies and investment firms are scrambling to create fossil fuel-free products for their investors. Part of what we’re doing is helping change the marketplace. So whether you have $25,000 or $25,000,000, you can be part of that movement."

And if you don't have $25,000 in investments? Well, you can still have an impact, Collins says.

"You might be a member of a religious congregation. What is your congregation’s investment policy? You may live in a town — hundreds of communities are divesting from the fossil fuel sector. You may have some connection to another endowment such as a foundation or a hospital, charity, or charitable hospital."

Essentially, putting pressure on groups or organizations that have invested funds or endowments on behalf of a community you're a part of can go a long way. Universities and colleges are also big players in the investment game, Collins notes, which is part of the reason why the fossil fuel divestment movement largely started on campuses.

"Whether you’re a student or an alumni of an institution, you should let your university know that you would encourage them to divest from fossil fuels, and as an alumni maybe someday you’ll be a donor to the university — but you’re sort of saying, 'Look, I want you to take this action.'

"It’s not just a moral and ethical issue. It’s also good money sense," he says. "In the coal industry, these companies are spending $600 billion a year around the world looking for new sources of carbon assets. We already know that 80% of the carbon assets they own have to stay in the ground — cannot be burned without catastrophic climate change.

"Those assets that they have are going to be stranded, they’re not going to be worth as much because we’re going to succeed in stopping them. So you don’t want to be invested in those companies, basically. It’s going to be risky and volatile," Collins concludes.

"We had David Blood, cofounder of Generation Investment, at our press conference yesterday, and he was saying, 'Well, it’s all fine to make the ethical statement, but here’s an insider tip: Get the heck out!'"